Even if it’s raining throughout the rest of the state — or snowing, or sleeting — it’s always clear and dry at TCF Stadium when the Golden Gophers are playing. And there is a rainbow stretched from end zone to end zone.

The Karma Train, which carried the Minnesota Vikings to a playoff spot in 2012 but has since been rerouted, now stops at TCF. All aboard!

The Gophers are playing well. There’s no question about that. They squared off against Penn State as equals Saturday, not as some ragtag outfit looking for an upset. The talent levels of the teams were very similar. But now there is a different element coming into play.

The team that supposedly never catches a break, the unluckiest program on the face of the earth, continues to benefit from happy circumstance here in 2013. One week after a stunning fumble by Indiana sealed a Minnesota victory in Bloomington, Ind., for example, the Gophers again came up roses when Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg dropped the snap 2 yards from the Minnesota end zone with 6:40 left.

They also were able to down a punt at the 1-yard line and another at the 2. Good job by the return team to get down there, but we all know that if this were any other season, those footballs would have found their way into the end zone for touchbacks.

“We’re playing hard, and it is allowing some good things to happen,” coach Jerry Kill said.

When it was all over, the Gophers raced across the field, grabbed the Governor’s Victory Bell trophy, and, well, broke it. They aren’t used to handling these things, and if it had been Floyd of Rosedale, they might have yanked off its tail. Or worse. Now they will have a year to super-glue the trophy back together.

“I think the thing just kind of fell apart when we all picked it up,” noted tight end Maxx Williams.

It’s not a very sturdy-looking piece of hardware, even though it was created in 1993. In two weeks, the Gophers play Wisconsin for the much more historic Paul Bunyan’s Axe, which first made an appearance in 1948. If the Gophers are fortunate enough to take possession of that trophy, they better grab it by the proper end or someone could get hurt. Based on what happened Saturday, maybe they should practice with a plastic axe.

The Gophers have a shot at taking that trophy from the vaunted Badgers. They have won four straight Big Ten games. And a big reason for that surge has been quarterback Philip Nelson. Despite suffering from a hip pointer, Nelson completed 15 of 24 passes for 186 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions Saturday. He also ran for 40 yards at just the right moments.

“The wind was up high,” Kill noted. “In the throwing game, it didn’t affect it. Philip’s got a strong arm. As long as you didn’t get the ball way up, you could control the football a little bit. We’ve had some windy practices and so forth. If you don’t worry about it, if you go to practice and you’re used to it, you don’t think about it in the game.”

It’s been quite a stretch for quarterback revivals in Minnesota. First there was Christian Ponder, who had been about as popular as ringworm, turning into a hero against the Washington Redskins. And now Nelson, who at one point appeared to have lost his starting job to unproven freshman Mitch Leidner, has led the Gophers to yet another victory.

The meek have inherited the earth.

“Right now, we’re in a pretty good position,” Nelson said. “We’re where we thought we could be at the beginning of the year.”

Not a lot of people shared that confidence. But now not only are the Gophers playing better; they’re also on the receiving end of the breaks — the good luck — that has eluded them for years. So no matter the score or the amount of time remaining in a game, these Golden Gophers remain in contention.

“The biggest difference with this team is that in those situations we can fight back, whereas in the previous years we might have been likely to roll over” said senior defensive back Brock Vereen. “I think it is the confidence we play with now. Things don’t snowball anymore. There’s no domino effect.”

And then afterward they can tear up the trophies and enjoy the rainbows.

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